The truth hurts (or at least stings and itches)

"Wow, this article says West Nile virus was recently found in a mosquito in Marstons Mills? Sounds scary. Says here that the virus travels from infected birds to mosquitoes to humans. Yikes. Oh, here's how to prevent it from spreading. Number 1: bug spray. Easy enough. Number 2: wear long sleeves early in the morning and in t...

By MADDIE DRAKE

capecodtimes.com

By MADDIE DRAKE

Posted Aug. 20, 2012 at 2:00 AM
Updated Aug 21, 2012 at 12:15 AM

By MADDIE DRAKE

Posted Aug. 20, 2012 at 2:00 AM
Updated Aug 21, 2012 at 12:15 AM

» Social News

"Wow, this article says West Nile virus was recently found in a mosquito in Marstons Mills? Sounds scary. Says here that the virus travels from infected birds to mosquitoes to humans. Yikes. Oh, here's how to prevent it from spreading. Number 1: bug spray. Easy enough. Number 2: wear long sleeves early in the morning and in the evening. Number 3: put in screens on windows and doors. Ah, I keep forgetting to do that... . Number 4: empty containers in your yard and neighborhood of standing water. Err ... hmm. I'll just get on that tomorrow. No, the weekend. Oh, forget it! Who has time to do this stuff, anyway?!"

In case you haven't heard the buzz, West Nile virus was recently found in a mosquito on the Cape. Though the virus is not a terribly dangerous threat to healthy individuals, in advanced stages such as encephalitis and meningitis it kills about 10 percent of its victims. And despite the fact that I know West Nile poses a risk to many people's health, I don't think I or my neighbors will be walking around my street tonight emptying flowerpots and kiddie pools. Situations like this one provide good examples of how our all-too-human inability to modify behaviors and prevent future risk could very well lead to the demise of our species.

Take the cases of salmonella and E. coli, bacteria that poison food and lead to painful physical reactions and, in some cases of E. coli, death. If we were to modify some of our food-related behaviors, the bacteria could be prevented from spreading to our bodies, but instead people still use meat's color to determine when it is done (as opposed to a cooking thermometer), don't wash their hands thoroughly, and mix foods on cutting boards instead of washing the board in between cutting.

When the swine flu emerged, almost everyone was warned that it could be easily passed through airborne and physical contact. There were millions of cases, tens of thousands of deaths — and yet we all saw people sneezing in their hands, blowing their noses and not sanitizing afterwards, or walking around with symptoms but ignoring the danger of infecting others or succumbing to the illness themselves.

Even sexually transmitted diseases, about which most of us know at least the rudimentary facts, continue to ravage the nation. We pass around dirty needles and fail to use condoms. Diseases are out on rampant killing sprees, but on the whole, the actions that people need to take to protect themselves from such dangers take a very long time to implement, if they are implemented at all. It feels exhausting to imagine changing even a single behavior for the sake of an invisible illness, and so instead of changing our habits we push warnings to the back of our minds and tell ourselves that realistically, the threat probably wasn't very high anyway. Could this stem from a mistrust of the government? For example, maybe we are paranoid that our elected officials exaggerate danger to appeal to some hidden agenda. Do we feel removed from those who are affected by disease, and figure it cannot happen to us? Are our advanced human brains still incapable of accurately assessing the risk of taking a certain action vs. not acting at all? Or are we just lazy?

In the long run, West Nile virus may not pose as much of a threat as does, say, smallpox or malaria. But our obstinacy about habit-change will, without a doubt, contribute to the damage that the next big disease causes. Whether we were born this way or have become it, we are creatures of habit; our action (or inaction) is one of the biggest roadblocks we face in the pursuit of disease prevention and a better public health system overall. It is not an effortless process. Until we are willing to put energy into changing our behaviors and make newer and healthier choices, our nation will remain at the mercy of unknown illness.

Now if you need me, I'll be turning over some flower pots. Or watching TV. I haven't decided yet.

Maddie Drake of Sandwich, a rising senior at UMass Amherst, is a Times summer intern. Email her at madelfem.d@gmail.com.